


Sharp Shooting

by Salamandriod



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Post-Fall of Overwatch, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, my gun kink is learning to use them safely and effectively
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 17:39:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9776789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salamandriod/pseuds/Salamandriod
Summary: After being helped out of a tough spot by Jesse, Angela decides she needs to learn a new skill. Jesse offers to teach her.





	

Angela could _feel_ the crack as she hit the rock more than she could hear it, but because of the blast she was briefly unable to tell just what was broken. A bone she could heal easily enough, but the prototype Valkyrie suit was another story altogether.

 

She kept calm as she gently moved every limb, testing first her fingers and toes before moving on to arms and legs. Each movement came easily and painlessly indicating that nothing was obviously broken. In one sense, it was good since it meant the Valkyrie suit could adequately protect her despite the lightweight armor. On the other hand, it would potentially cost thousands to fix, depending on what exactly had broken.

 

Assuming, of course, she could make it back to the rest of her team, who at the moment were nowhere in sight.

 

Angela cursed softly to herself as she stood up, using the butt end of her staff to help keep balanced. She hesitated briefly, then twisted around to get a good look at her back only to see what she had dreaded. The base of one of the wings had cracked, leaving the wing dangling uselessly towards the ground. She groaned, but didn’t let despair settle on her shoulders. Like a clipped bird, she’d be grounded for the rest of the mission, but she could still help her team.

 

Determined, she started off back in the direction that the blast had been, assuming they’d all just been tossed in different directions. She kept her guard up, of course, constantly watching and listening for signs of life and keeping one hand on the blaster that the commander had insisted on her having.

 

The crackle in her ear made her jump and she was glad that a certain few members of the team weren’t around to see that.

 

“Ziegler, are you hurt?” Jack’s voice was a blessing and she felt more at ease just hearing him.

 

“I’m fine, thankfully,” she replied after a moment of fumbling with the comm device. “Though, the Valkyrie suit is broken. The faster this mission is over the better. Have you made contact with anyone else?”

 

“Good to know. I’m eager to get out of here myself since the enemy seems better equipped than we thought. Can you make it back to the drop site on your own? Wilhelm and Amari are already on their way there.”

 

Angela nodded as she turned, only catching herself after a moment. “Yes, commander. I take it you haven’t heard from Je- _Gopfertammi!_ “

 

“Ziegler? Where are you?”

 

Jack couldn’t see the bullet that whizzed by, just barely grazing Angela’s arm. Immediately she reeled around and just barely caught sight of a goon dropping down from a nearby ledge. She dashed for the nearest cover, too focused on self-preservation to even consider answering the commander.

 

A couple more bullets whizzed by before she managed to hide, thankfully missing her entirely. Despite her best efforts to keep calm, Angela couldn’t help but to panic a little. This was supposed to be an easy mission to test the Valkyrie suit and the rookies, and now there was a more than zero chance she could be killed.

 

She could hear footsteps draw closer to her hiding spot and despite how she hated the idea, she knew she had to fight. She’d never be able to outrun the goon with her wings acting as dead weight, and she had no idea if her teammates would be able to find her in time. Reluctantly, she dropped the caduceus staff to the ground and pulled out her blaster, though with how much her hands were shaking she didn’t have much faith at hitting anything further away than point blank.

 

The footsteps stopped and for a moment everything was still.

 

Angela made the first move, stepping around to the other side of the boulder she’d been behind, trying to get some distance on the goon and flank him. She aimed as best she could at the man’s chest and fired a few rounds, but with her shaking and tense posture only two shots managed to graze him.

 

The man grunted in pain nevertheless and immediately returned fire, resulting in a bullet piercing into her shoulder.

 

Without thinking, Angela fired another couple of shots and turned to run towards the drop site, only trying to slow the man down even if she didn’t hit him. She’d never win in a gunfight, she never _wanted_ to win in a gunfight, and her only hope now was to run into Reinhardt and Ana before anything worse happened.

 

The man chased after her and continued to fire, taking his time between shots to try and predict her weaving pattern. She could feel a few bullets shatter the tips of her wings, but she’d take a broken prototype over any more injury.

 

There was a long pause between shots, longer than the others, and Angela risked a glance behind her. She caught sight of the man reloading just before she tripped on a rock jutting out of the ground. She hit dirt before she could even hope to react, earning her a few scrapes on her face. She cursed and slammed her fist on the ground before trying to push herself up as quickly as possible, but it was already too late. The click of the gun’s hammer echoed in her ears and she looked up to find herself staring down the barrel.

 

A flash of light briefly blinded her and she wasn’t sure whether it was just sunlight glaring off the gun or the flash of the muzzle signaling her demise. Six shots rang out immediately afterwards splattering blood everywhere.

 

Funnily enough, she didn’t feel any one of those six shots hit her, nor did she feel any pain indicating a new wound. Slowly Angela opened her eyes to see the goon that had been chasing her lying dead on the ground, six bullet holes painting his chest red. The man had been out to kill her, but she still looked away, uneasy seeing the newly dead.

 

Jesse hopped down from a ledge above her, first going to kick the body before tending to his teammate. “Sorry about the blood,” he said as he helped her to her feet and away from the body. “Hard to avoid the spray when you’re that close.”

 

Angela was in shock for a few moments, adrenaline making it hard to talk about something as casual as blood splatter. “How did you find me?” she asked finally in disbelief.

 

Jesse simply shrugged. “I must’ve spoken with the commander right after he spoke with you, given how panicked he was, and I just followed the gunshots. Not that difficult,” he answered casually. He flicked his eyes over her body, widening at the sight of the trickle of blood at her shoulder. “Shit, your arm!” Without thinking he ripped a strip of fabric off of his uniform and carefully wrapped it around the wound to stem the flow of blood.

 

“Thank you,” she mumbled after a few moments. She paused for a moment, then gestured back to where she’d been hiding originally. “Can you run back and get my staff?”

 

Jesse flashed a smile and dashed off without a word, returning a minute later, inspecting the staff in his hands. “Shouldn’t trust me to try to patch you up, if that’s what you’re after. I’d mess up your nano-what’sits,” he said, offering the staff back to her.

 

Angela took it with a faint laugh. “Your bandage will do more than enough for now,” she assured with a smile. “I just didn’t want to leave it behind now that we’re safe.” She took a few steps forward, only to stop and wince after a moment.

 

Before she could even ask, Jesse had already slipped her good arm over his shoulders and pulled her weight onto him.

 

“Good to know that one guardian angel has another looking out for her,” she teased, pressing a quick kiss to his cheek as they walked back towards the drop site.

 

* * *

 

 

The worst injury of the entire mission was thankfully just Angela’s shoulder and nearly ruined prototype Valkyrie suit. Despite the failure of the mission, at least she knew what parts of the Valkyrie suit needed to be worked on. She spent her time healing doing just that, staying in her lab and drawing up new plans with the engineers.

 

Immediately after the mission, Jack came into her office to apologize, assuring her that they were looking into the informant that failed to tell them about just what sort of weapons the enemy had. She waved him off, assuring him that she didn’t hold it against anyone in Overwatch. It was, after all, part of what happened if she went out into the field more often.

 

A few of the other senior members of Overwatch stopped in the aftermath, trying and failing as masking their concern for her mental wellbeing. Despite how bothersome they could be while she was working, Angela was always sure to give them a smile and assure them she was fine.

 

Jesse stopped by on occasion as well, but that was hardly anything out of the ordinary.

 

Despite all her efforts to appear normal following the mission, Angela couldn’t help but to be just a tad twitchier when she was alone. She had come so close to being killed and it was only luck that Jesse had gotten to her in time. Honestly, she was terrified that something like that would happen again but without Jesse’s quick thinking to come to her aid. If she had only been more accurate, more accustomed to her pistol then she might not have needed to be in that situation at all.

 

Once her shoulder was fully recovered, Angela found herself at the shooting range early in the morning, blaster in hand. She took a deep breath to calm herself and lifted it, taking her time to make sure her posture was just right. She tensed and squeezed the trigger only to miss the target entirely.

 

Practice made perfect, right? She let herself focus entirely on shooting for a while, completely oblivious to anything else around her.

 

“You’re too tense,” a voice called out, startling her out of her trance. She wheeled around, gun still in hand to face the intruder only to be met with the sight of Jesse in his usual clothes, including his infamous hat. He lifted his hands as if to prove he was unarmed.

 

Angela blinked and set her blaster down before stepping away from the shooting range. It was probably time for a break anyway. “What do you mean, I’m too tense? Nothing I read said that being tense will throw off your aim,” she asked. “How did you even know I was down here?”

 

“Wanted to bring you breakfast, but you were gone. Figured there were only a few places you might be if not in your office,” he replied with a shrug. He stepped over to take her place at the range, picking up her blaster and weighing it in his hand. He considered it for a moment, then casually shot three times, each one hitting the target dead center. “Reading doesn’t make up for practice. You’ve got to relax,” he continued, flipping the blaster around and offering the handle to her.

 

“Try again,” he said, nodding at it.

 

Tentatively, Angela took the blaster and got into the proper stance. She paused before firing and consciously relaxed her shoulders. For a moment, she did feel a bit more confident about her aim, but the moment she squeezed the trigger the tension returned and made her miss.

 

“Verdammt,” she grumbled, stepping back again.

 

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Jesse said, stepping closer and resting a hand on her arm. “It takes practice. Your form’s there, so once you get this, you might be a better shot than me,” he encouraged.

 

Angela forced a small smile at that. She was glad that Jesse was always so supportive, but in this case she just couldn’t believe it. “Maybe I should just tell Jack to reconsider continuing the Valkyrie project,” she said after a moment.

 

“Just because you can’t shoot perfectly yet? At least let me do my best to teach ya before giving up. Go on, give it one more try today and think about it after that.”

 

Jesse was smiling perhaps a bit too brightly for Angela to trust entirely, but she supposed he did have a point. She stepped forward again and assumed the proper stance, once again consciously forcing her shoulders to relax.

 

Before she could shoot, though, Jesse’s arms wrapped around hers, his hands gently resting on her own. “Breathe in,” he instructed softly in her ear, “Squeeze the trigger as you breathe out with me. Three, two, one, in- and out.”

 

It was hard to focus on breathing, much less _shooting_ with Jesse pressed up against her back, but somehow Angela managed to do it. Whether by the other’s instruction or simply from steadying her aim himself, the shot hit the target. Not in the center, of course, but hitting it at all was quite the improvement.

 

Jesse lingered for a moment, pleased with Angela’s success, then stepped back. “See? Just need a good teacher,” he said, flashing a smile.

 

Angela’s smile this time was genuine as she put her blaster down. “I guess I should ask Ana for lessons, but I doubt she’d be as… _interesting_ a teacher as you are,” she agreed.

 

* * *

 

 

Angela had joined the Overwatch recall tentatively. She wanted to believe that everything would go better a second time around, but with how much bad blood there had been between the original founders, she wasn’t so optimistic. Still, she could lend her services to Winston and the rest, both medical and as an adviser.

 

Honestly, it felt good to be fighting beside her old teammates. Genji was more full of life than ever, thanks to the Omnic Zenyatta whom he had brought with him, Lena and Reinhardt were just as she remembered, bringing smiles to everyone’s faces, and Winston was doing a fine job leading them all.

 

Familiar faces weren’t the only things that had remained the same over the years, of course. There were still times during missions that Angela found herself separated from the rest of her team, cornered by an enemy or two. Most of the time, she could handle it on her own, or easily escape to a teammate who had just come into view.

 

Sometimes, she could not.

 

“Tracer, send someone back towards the diner, _now_. I need backup,” Angela hissed into her comm device as she ducked behind some cover.

 

She’d managed to take out one of the four goons in her way, but not without taking some light injuries herself. Trying to take on the other three alone would only result in disaster. She double checked to ensure that her staff was safely attached to her back, then reloaded her blaster.

 

One of the goons found her quickly enough much to Angela’s disappointment. She quickly whacked him with the butt of her pistol and used the brief moment of stun to put some distance between them. She turned and fell into the stance she’d learned so long ago in the practice range, dropping her shoulders and breathing out as she fired three shots right into the man’s chest. He fell, incapacitated.

 

A shot rang out and Angela felt a bullet pierce just above her hip. She spun around despite the pain and quickly acquired her new target. She took aim and fired a couple shots, but before she could get a final blow in two gunshots rang out, though she only saw her attacker’s muzzle flash once.

 

A bullet grazed her arm, and on the man a blossom of blood boomed on his chest as he fell to the ground.

 

Angela was confused for a moment, no one on that day’s mission had a weapon with bullets, not unless they picked up someone else’s gun.

 

A noise behind her pulled at her attention and she whipped around to face the last of the goons. Before she could so much as aim at him, though, another gunshot rang out and a bloody hole appeared in the middle of the man’s forehead.

 

Tentatively, Angela put her blaster back at her side and turned to look up at the ledges behind her.

 

His face was obscured, but the cowboy hat gave him away regardless.

 

“That’s quite the shot you’ve got there. Must’ve had a great teacher,” Jesse said. He hopped down from the ledge and grinned at Angela.

 

“I wouldn’t know, he disappeared before I could see the extent of his skill.”

 

Jesse’s smile faltered at that, his gaze dropping to the ground. “You know what happened,” he replied sheepishly. “Not like I left because of you. Just… didn’t want to get caught up in the drama.”

 

“That’s a bit hard to believe when you show up at the same time and place as the new Overwatch. It’s quite the coincidence.”

 

“Well, I heard y’all were going to be in my area, and I figured I could at least see how you lot were doing. Didn’t expect to run into my angel.”

 

Angela couldn’t help a small chuckle at that. “I should be the one surprised about running into my guardian angel,” she teased. “I’d have a lot more injuries than a couple scrapes had you not shown up.”

 

Jesse’s smile returned, just as bright and beautiful as she remembered it. “I guess I’ll just have to stick around, make sure that Overwatch’s angel is safe,” he said, leaning in closer.

 

“Angela! Are you- Oh! Jesse! Didn’t expect to see you here.” Lena’s sudden appearance made the two of them jump away like they were two teens caught sneaking around again.

 

“Howdy, Lena,” Jesse greeted, tipping his hat to her. “Sorry for not responding to Winston’s message before, needed a bit of time. If you still need people, I’d be happy to fight with Overwatch again.”

 

“We’d be glad to have you!” Lena assured. She turned to look at Angela, a knowing smile on her face. “I’m sure Angie here can fill you in on everything we’ve been up to. Winston, Mei, and I have almost got everything else finished up.” She turned and waved as she started to blink away. “Catch you back at the ship!” she called before disappearing entirely.

 

They were silent for a moment in awkward embarrassment, ashamed at not only being caught by their friend but also by being so obvious even after everything that had happened.

 

Jesse broke it first. “I suppose if I try to leave again, Lena will come to smack some sense into me before I could even finish the thought,” he drawled.

 

Angela laughed like she hadn’t in years. “Only if I don’t get to you first,” she teased. She turned and leaned up to press a kiss to the man’s lips, soft but with the promise of passion that had never waned. Once they parted she grabbed his hand and started leading him back to the ship. “Come on, you need to tell me what you’ve been doing these last few years.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I've had knocking around in my head for a long while now and I finally got it out. Basically what's the point of having a ship if one can't teach the other how to shoot a gun. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
